School Amateur Radio Club Network

News

This page contains all the latest news about school amateur radio clubs. Please
contact us to add your SARC news to this page. Send us a picture
and description of your SARC activities. Remember to get parental permission to publish
student photographs on this site and in our newsletters.

February 2017: SARC Presentation at Moorabbin and District Amateur Radio Club.

February 2017: SARC Presentation at Shepparton and District Amateur Radio Club.

December 2016: SARC presentation at the Eastern Zone Amateur Radio Club.

November 2016: School Amateur Radio Club station VK3SRC participated in the
annual Keith Roget Memorial National Park Award activation weekend at Point Nepean
and Morning Peninsula National Parks. The station received an award for contacting
25 National Parks.

October 2016: SARC presentation at the Eastern and Mountain Districts Radio
Club.

April 2015: Three school newsletter articles advise of SARC activities.

February 2015: Three school newsletter articles published to advise the introduction
of school amateur radio clubs. The article provided the purpose, background, format
and operation of the clubs.

SARCNET @ St. Kevin's Primary School

Here's
some of the year 3/4 School Amateur Radio Club group at St. Kevin's Primary
School. It is a big group this year and there is lots to do. The gang is usually on the air at lunchtime on Thursdays
(7100kHz LSB) typically looking for contacts with VK5 (South
Australia) and VK7 (Tasmania). Their call sign is VK3SRC. If you
hear them on you really should give them a call. They would love to
have a QSO (contact) with you. They have got the Amateur Radio calling procedures
down pat, but they could use some practice with the International
Radio Alphabet and signal reports. When no one else is on
the air, they use their practice sets to play their favourite game:
Morse Code Battleships! If it isn't raining they will often go
outside and use VHF/UHF FM hand-held radios to practice. All of this
takes place under the close supervision of a licenced Amateur Radio operator of course.

SARCNET Workshops @ Moorabbin and District Radio Club

It looks like junk to some, but not to students at the free,
Tuesday night, SARCNET workshop at Moorabbin and District Radio
Club: They know how to recycle computer parts and build their own
working PCs for nothing! Their projects look more like a
Frankenstein monster than a real PC, with bits and pieces from who
knows where all stitched together, but that's half the fun. Free computer parts can often be scrounged from
family and friends, schools and workplaces: “Please Sir, may I have
more computer parts – it’s for my, my project?” You never know just
what you’ll get, but you will soon become adept at swapping them
around to build your own freaky creations. Students learn about what
each component does, how to safely connect it and how to test it.
Once all his parts are finally assembled on the laboratory table it is
time to bring your Frankenstein PC to life. Apply a jolt of power
and wait to see if his fans start beating, his eyes blink and if, at
last, he beeps. It's alive! It's alive! Now take a journey through his innards by
accessing his Basic Input Output System (BIOS) to find out what his
brain is made of and if he has any memory. You can set his body
clock and explore all of his peripherals: Of course, some may be rejected and will
have to be replaced. Now it is time to give him a real
personality. There are literally dozens to choose from. Download a
free operating system and boot him up with it. Don’t like it? Just try
another. You will have to give him a name and a password so only you
can command him. You can
even personalise him with bizarre colour schemes of your own. Tell him that one day you might
even give him a nice case, but for now he is your personal experiment!

Well,
soldering tiny electronic Surface Mount Devices (SMDs) might seem
daunting at first, but it turns out to be a piece of cake, once
you've got the hang of it... So, after completing the assembly of
their own SMD practice boards, the students at the Tuesday Night
SARCNET@MDRC Workshops move on to the more challenging task of using
a Hot-Air SMD Rework Station. Operating at 350 degrees Celsius,
these temperature-controlled hot-air wands are certainly hot enough
to curl anyone's hair! But in skilled hands they make quick work of
de-soldering even the largest SMD integrated circuits. The trick is
to pre-heat both the front and rear of the PCB before concentrating
the air stream on the IC pins themselves. Here, Jamie is harvesting
dozens of pre-loved SMD components from a multilayer Printed Circuit
Board. She will most likely re-use the parts in her future
electronics projects. Below, Ethan and Kyle are working on their own
board. It requires a steady hand on the tweezers and the ability to
recognize the sound of the air stream when it's at the correct
distance from the board. Emilka is using a Solder Sucker to
refurbish her PTH prototyping board. She found that it is quicker
than using solder-wick for double-sided PTH boards, but said it
requires a bit of practice to get the timing just right. Everyone
seems to have something interesting to do, tonight. There is no
doubt that these young electronics enthusiasts can master any task.

SARCNET
provides free Electronics, Soldering and Arduino workshops for kids
at Moorabbin and District Radio Club on Tuesday nights. Kyle and
Basil are shown below completing the Flip-Flop Electronics
Prototyping Workshop. This famous two-transistor circuit, a "bistable
multivibrator", is the basis of modern computer memory. Jamie and
Emilka are already on to their own projects. Jamie has created and
programmed an Arduino musical doorbell. Emilka is working on a Surface Mount
Device (SMD) electronic roulette wheel. Siblings Matthew, Jessica and
Abigail (4yo) have mastered soldering SMDs using their SMD practice
boards. Edward, who
is practicing Plated Through Hole (PTH) soldering, already builds his own
Printed Circuit Board (PCB) electronics kits.

SARCNET @ Festival of Bright Ideas, Hobart, Tasmania

On
Friday 10 August 2017, SARCNET provided an Electronics Prototyping
Workshop for over 200 Students at the Festival of Bright Ideas in
Hobart, Tasmania during National Science Week. On
Saturday 11 August 2017, the exercise was repeated for over 100
youngsters, this time with their families. The event was free to
schools and the general public. The students were given a tray of
electronic components. They were shown the function and symbol of
each component, together with a circuit diagram and an animated
slide-show explaining how it worked. They were then able to build
the circuit, step-by-step, on a small prototyping board. When
completed, a battery was connected and the circuit flashed two blue
LEDs. To whet their appetite for building electronics kits at
home, the students were given catalogues, kindly donated by Jaycar
and Active Electronics. Details of the SARCNET Electronics
Prototyping Workshops can be found on our
workshops page.

SARCNET @ Churchill National Park, Victoria

On Wednesday 7 June 2017,
the whole of year 3 and 4, including members of the School Amateur
Radio Club in their hi-viz vests, turned out for a day of adventure
at Churchill National Park. The day began with an educational
presentation about the history, flora and fauna of the park from the
park ranger. Then everyone was split up into six groups of six. Each
group rotated through five 30 minute activities including HF Amateur
Radio Communications and a simulated Search and Rescue activity.

For the HF Communications activity, the
park was activated using the call sign VK3SRC/P for the Amateur
Radio World Wide Flora and Fauna program.
Contacts were made to stations in all southern states.

Meanwhile an aircraft, "crashed in nearby bush land", was located
using Amateur Radio Direction Finding equipment. The survivors were
rescued and treated with first-aid. The teams learnt valuable
bushwalking, navigation, triangulation, portable radio operation and
first-aid skills.

Teachers and parents all agreed that the
students did a wonderful job.

SARCNET @ Hahndorf, South Australia

On Sunday 21
May 2017, SARCNET provided a free and
exclusive opportunity for
Hahndorf Primary School students to get some extra hands-on
experience with Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM). The event was held at Hahndorf Oval in
conjunction with the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) annual
general meeting and "Radio is Magic" expo.

Students from years 1 through 7 participated in a range of activities including:

SARCNET Electronics, Soldering and Arduino Workshop at Moorabbin and District Radio Club

On 2 May 2017 the first weekly SARCNET electronics,
soldering and Arduino workshop was held
at the club rooms of the Moorabbin and District Radio Club.

Students investigated the concepts of voltage, current and resistance using a power supply,
conductors, semi-conductors, insulators and resistors.

A semiconductor, optoelectronic, Light Emitting Diode (LED) became the focus of a number
of experiments as the students tackled with the challenge of how to make this 2-volt device
work when connected to a 5-volt microcontroller. The characteristic curve of the device
was even plotted on a graph. The problem was cleverly solved by using a resistor to convert
excess energy into heat.

With the resistor securely soldered to the leads of the LED, this hybrid component was inserted
into a microcontroller prototyping board and was made to flash, on and off, under program
control.

The exercise was precisely designed to give the students a preview of SARCNET workshops.
Each week the workshops will combine elements of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,
requiring investigation, intuition, problem solving and above all fun!

SARCNET gets involved in the Melbourne Space Program

On 18 March 2017 the SARC-inspired Mini
Satellite-Antenna Rotator MkII and Portable
Radio Terminal projects were demonstrated to members of the Melbourne Space Program.
The demonstration covered the history, theory and art of tracking amateur radio and weather
satellites, with an outline of the practical considerations of building a reliable satellite
ground station.

The demonstration proved to be a success, with the members tracking the UKUBE-1 satellite
(The UK Space Agency’s first national spacecraft). There was also lively discussion on a
number of related topics, including suitable equipment, antennas, Doppler effect, encoding/decoding
and even platform stabilization, from the very enthusiastic team.

The Melbourne Space Program hopes to launch a 1U Cubesat in 2018. The tracking demonstration,
held in the open at University Square, was arranged by Mr. Stuart Cooper, the Melbourne
Space Program's Telecommunications Team Leader.

It was agreed that Melbourne Space Program and SARCNET should collaborate in some way to
help make the project a success and to get primary school students involved. The details
of this collaboration will be the subject of future SARCNET news items.

Information about the Melbourne Space Program can be found at http://melbournespace.org/.

2016 SARC Excellence Awards

Top SARC students, Ciara, Kyle and Emilka each received their SARC excellence awards
for shortwave communications together with a prize sponsored by the Altronics Springvale
store. The store manager Mr. Harold Mollaneda said the prizes including a soldering iron,
solder, tip cleaner and wire cutters would help the students continue their interest in
electronic kit building at home.

School Amateur Radio Clubs article published in Amateur Radio Magazine

Forward by Principal Michael Day

It is interesting that in this day and age of mobile broadband networks and social media
that Amateur Radio, the pioneering radio hobby of the last century, would be an excellent
way of introducing science and technology to young children today. Amateur Radio enthusiasts
are an amazing, untapped resource for educators.
They are hidden away in every community,
and can provide their own equipment and expertise. They also have a zeal to pass on this
technology to the next generation. And, I would say, their aging ranks could do with some
new recruits from us. So this largely free and enriching collaboration between the schools
and the Amateur Radio fraternity is a classic win-win situation.
When I first introduced the school Amateur Radio club at St. Kevin's Primary School in Ormond
Victoria, I had no idea what a success it would be. We were lucky to have an Amateur Radio
enthusiast within our ranks, so the introduction was initially driven by this staff member.
The teachers, parents and students are now raving about it. To see the children confidently
building electronic kits or talking to other schools over shortwave radio is quite incredible.
I am now exploring ways to expand this program. The following article, by Julie and Joe
Gonzales, (our staff member and her husband) introduces the modern world of Amateur Radio.
It explains how they set up Amateur Radio clubs at three primary schools in Melbourne and
it provides all the information needed for other schools to get involved.

2016 ANZAC Day Amateur Radio Special Event article published in Amateur Radio magazine

The School Amateur Radio Club Network and the Melbourne Region Scouts joined forces to
present their inaugural ANZAC Day Amateur Radio Special Event at the 1st Bentleigh Scout
Hall at Victory Park in Victoria.

The all-day event was attended by some 200 school students, Scouts and their families.

Highlights of the day included a high altitude balloon launch, a very moving ANZAC day ceremony
and many radio-related activities and displays.

The progress of the balloon, which was tracked by local amateurs, was closely monitored
by the children on their mobile devices.

The electronics soldering activity, first aid - CPR demonstration and a historic WW2 radio
display also attracted a lot of attention.

Mini Satellite-Antenna Rotator article published in Amateur Radio magazine

This article describes the design and construction of a mini antenna rotator for tracking
amateur radio satellites. The inspiration for this project was to provide a portable and
appealing demonstration of amateur radio satellite operation for our primary school amateur
radio clubs. The results have been completely satisfactory.

To communicate via amateur radio satellites in low earth orbit a directional antenna with
even a few decibels of gain is a definite advantage. However, the antenna must be pointed
at the satellite for about 10 minutes during a typical overhead pass.

Our problem was that holding the antenna and pointing it in the right direction for an entire
satellite pass was a real chore for small children. It detracted from the novelty of amateur
radio satellite communications. So it was time for technology to step in and make our lives
easier. This mini satellite-antenna rotator was the result.

SARC article published in Education Today magazine

A one-page, abridged version of our SARC article was published in the term 1 2016 edition
of the prestigious Education Today magazine (The "school principals' magazine" with a readership
of over 8000 school principals). Entitled "School
amateur radio is set for a comeback with SARCNET" the article was expertly condensed
by ET Staff to fit the single page format of the magazine. Many thanks to ET editor Mr.
Bill Minnis of Minnis Journals for the great work and all the help provided along the way.
For more information on Education Today magazine please see: http://www.educationtoday.com.au/

2015 SARC Excellence Awards

Top students, Isobel, Zara and Isabella, from three primary school amateur radio clubs
in Melbourne each received excellence awards for shortwave communications together with
a prize sponsored by the Altronics Springvale store. The store manager Mr. Harold Mollaneda
said he was delighted to sponsor the prizes of a soldering iron, solder and wire cutters
to students who had excelled in school amateur radio club activities including electronic
kit building. The clubs promote concepts of science and technology to an enthusiastic group
of young students through the fascinating hobby of amateur radio. For more information about
school amateur radio clubs please contact Julie VK3FOWL by emailing info@sarcnet.org